Apparatus for feeding wrapping material to wrapping machines



c. T. HALL 3,

APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WRAPPING MATERIAL T0 WRAPPING MACHINES Jan. 21, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 5, 1962 A TTOR/VE 79 Jan. 21, 1964 c. T. HALL 3,113,263

APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WRAPPING MATERIAL T0 WRAPPING MACHINES Filed March 5, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 A TTOR/VE 3,318,253 Patented Jan. 21, 1954 3,118,263 A PARATUS 'FQR WRAPPING MATE- RIAL T9 WRAFIING MACHENES Charles Thomas Hall, Deptford, London, England, as-

signer to Moiins Machine Company Limited, Deptford, London, England, a British company Filed Mar. 5, 1962, Ser. No. 177,592

Qlaizns priority, application Great Britain Mar. 6, 1961 v 3 Claims. (Ql. 53339) This invention concerns apparatus for feeding wrapping material to wrapping machines and more particularly a machine provided with the apparatus described in United States patent specification No. 2,999,345 whereby slits are made in a wrapper blank and the pieces of material between the slits, which may be termed flaps, are bent out of the plane of the blank so as to lie in advance of an article about which the wrapper is folded as the article and wrapper move along during the wrapping operations. For this purpose the said flaps are first bent by movable fingers or the like and during the further feeding of the material to the machine bed on which the wrapping operations take place the flaps pass between narrow slits comprising folders whereby the said fiaps are constrained to lie at 99 to the plane of the blank. It has been found that there is some risk of the flaps not entering the narrow slits since these are very narrow and the flaps are quite flimsy, and further the movement of the flaps through the slits is hampered by friction on the walls of the slits.

According to the invention there is provided a wrapping machine having a bed and means for feeding a web of wrapping material down through the bed and means for moving a rectangular block-shaped article to be wrapped along the bed and against the material as a step in the wrapping operations, means for cuttin a pair of slits at each side of the web spaced apart by the thickness of the articles (as defined below) and extending inwardly thereof to such distance that the two pairs are spaced apart by the width of the article (as defined below) thereby providing a flap at each side of the web and means for bending the flaps to an angle of substantially 90 to the plane of the web and in the direction of movement of the article, a folder at each side of the web near to the bed and having a narrow slit so arranged that dun'ngcontinned movement of the web the flaps are entered into said slits and means for cutting a wrapper blank from the leading end of the web; said machine further comprising auxiliary feeding rollers arranged in the neighbourhood of the said narrow slits to feed the leading end of the web downwards and, running at a peripheral speed higher than the linear speed of the web to apply tension to the web and ensure the entry of the said flaps into the narrow slits, whereafter a blank is cut from the web, the said auxiliary rollers operating thereafter to feed the cut blank downwards, and means for separating the auxiliary feeding rollers to terminate the feeding of the blank at the instant the lower edges of the flaps reach the level of the bed. In the majority of cases the rectangular blockshaped articles are of oblong cross-section and the longer sides, that is, the Width lies on the bed while the thickness is measured upwards from the bed. These convenient terms thus serve equally well for articles of square cross-section.

With the construction set forth above the blank is brought down to the desired level with the flaps properly orientated and since the feeding movement is stopped precisely, the flaps cannot be crushed by impact with the bed. During the time the auxiliary rollers are acting on the uncut web they first tension it and then slip on its surface since they are running at a peripheral speed higher than the linear speed of the web.

The feeding rollers may comprise one roller freely rotatable on a fixed axis and a movable driven roller mounted on a lever operated by a cam and spring. The drive to said driven roller may be by a belt running over a driving pulley coaxial with the lever pivot and over a pulley fixed to the driven roller.

The apparatus may be arranged so that web cutting takes place at a fixed level for any length of blank as the auxiliary rollers will always engage the web before a blank is cut and thereafter continue to feed the blank to its final position.

A construction according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a sectional elevation of the apparatus, and

FIGURE 2 is a section of FIGURE 1 on the line 2-2.

Referring to the drawings a web of wrapping material 1, usually metal toll, is fed downwards by rollers 2 and 3 to rollers 4 and 5, the roller 5 being provided with blades 5A which makes side slits in the web to define the flaps required in the sides of the wrapper blank. After passing the rollers 4 and 5 the slit web is fed downwards by rollers 6 and 7 and passes between a cutting roller 8 and a fixed knife 9, the roller 8 having a blade 8A on it which is long enough to cut the web completely across so as to provide a blank B which is to be wrapped around the cigarettes.

The shape of the blank is a rectangle and the flaps are bent at to the plane of the blank as shown in FIG- URES 1 and 2 but further information may be obtained from the specification referred to above, the rollers 6 and 7 run faster than the linear speed of the web so as to pull it tight in order that the slits shall be accurately made in the web, the rollers slipping on the foil when the web is taut in the space between the rollers 4 and 5 and the rollers 6 and 7.

The rollers 8 and knife 9 are arranged at a fixed distance above the bed 11 of the machine, the distance being chosen to suit the largest blank within the range for which the machine is suitable and such that when a blank is in the wrapping position (as shown) a space will soon occur between the leading end of the uncut web and the rear end of the blank just cut from the web. This space is caused by the operation of auxiliary feeding rollers 17 and 18 in the following manner.

The flaps of the wrapper blank are turned at right angles to the plane of the web and in the direction of movement of the articles, which is a batch of cigarettes C, by pins It) so that they lie in advance of the batch of cigarettes and the remainder of the wrapper as a folding operation takes place. Before the flaps are turned the pins it? are at the right hand side of the web in FIGURE 1 and they pass through the wrapper to the position shown, in executing the flap-turning movement. The pins are operated by the spring, cam and linkwork shown in FIGURE 1. The batch of cigarettes C is carried along the machine bed 11 by a pusher 12 on a chain conveyor 13 and passes through a mouthpiece 14 and then presses against the blank B which is thus folded into a U about the batch between the surface of the bed 11 and a top plate 28 in the usual way. As can be seen from FIGURE 1 the side flaps F are leading, in advance of the cigarette batch.

Referring now to FIGURE 2 the flaps F have to pass down through the very narrow spaces or slits defined by folding plates 15 and 16 and it will be understood that as the pins 10 only knock the flaps forward and as these flaps are very flimsy there is a fair risk that they will be unable to enter properly between the plates 15 and 16, and during their passage through the slits the friction 3 between flaps and the walls of the slits will hinder their movement.

In order to ensure that the blank and flaps move as desired, means are provided for exerting some tension on the web prior to the cutting of the blank B by the cutters SA and 9 and thereafter to continue the feeding of the cut blank down to the required position.

These means consist of a freely running roller 17 mounted on a fixed axis and a cooperating roller 13 which is driven by a belt 19 which passes around guide pulleys 2t} and is driven by a pulley 21. The whole arrangement of roller 18 and its drive is carried on a lever consisting of a framework 22 which is pivoted on the shaft 23 of the pulley 2i and to the framework 22 there is attached a cam lever 24 with a roller 25 at its free end. This roller engages a cam 26 on the spindle of the roller 5, which naturally runs at one revolution per blank length seeing that it has to cut the two pairs of side slits in the web for each blank length fed. The apparatus is so timed and set that at the instant the F reach the position shown in FIGURE 1, that is at which the flaps touch the surface of the bed, the cam 26 swings the framework 22 about its pivot so that the roller 18 is drawn away from the roller 17 and blank feeding ceases. The timing of the moment of withdrawal of roller 18 is important because the blank must be driven down to the position shown but there must be no risk of the flaps F becoming crumpled by violent contact with the bed surface. The spring 27 pulls the framework 22 back to the position shown, against the stop 28.

By fixing the cutting position at a constant height above the bed for all blanks within the range the construction and assembly are simplified and the height can be anything within reason so long as the leading end of the web can be engaged by the auxiliary rollers before cutting takes place. Moreover by separating the final positioning of the blank from the web feeding apparatus the resulting gap between the two sections of wrapping material enables some adjustment to be made in the timing of the blank movement with respect to cigarette movements. The timing must be such that the oncoming web does not catch up with the trailing end of the blank otherwise the oncoming web will foul the cut blank and this means of course that the cut must take place before the auxiliary rollers separate.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a wrapping machine of the kind having a bed and means for feeding a web of Wrapping material down through the bed and means for moving a rectangular block-shaped article to be wrapped along the bed' and against the material as a step in the wrapping operations, comprising means for cutting a pair of slits at each side of the web spaced apart by the thickness of the article and extending inwardly thereof to such distance that the two pairs are spaced apart by the width of the article thereby providing a flap at each side of the web and means for bending the flaps to an angle of substantially 90 to the plane of the web and in the direction of movement of the article, a folder at each side of the web nearto the bed and having a narow slit so arranged that during continued movement of the web the flaps are entered into said slits, means for cutting a wrapper blank from the leading end of the web; and arranged at a height above the bed to cut the web at a distance from the bed slightly exceeding the length of blank extending above the bed when the blank feeding movement has terminated, auxiliary feeding rollers arranged near the said narrow slits to feed the leading end of the web downwards and running at a peripheral speed higher than the linear speed of the web to apply tension to the web and ensure the entry of the said flaps into narrow slits, whereafter a blank is cut from the web, the said auxiliary rollers operating thereafter to feed the cut blank downwards, and means for separating the auxiliary feeding rollers to terminate the feeding of the blank at the insant the lower edges of the flaps reach the level of the bed.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 in which the auxiliary feeding rollers comprise a freely rotatable roller on a fixed axis and a cooperating roller movable into and out of contact with the first roller, the cooperating roller being mounted on a pivoted lever and a cam and spring being provided for oscillating the lever on its pivot to move the cooperatin roller at the necessary times.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 2 comprising a pulley fixed to the cooperating roller and a driven pulley at the lever pivot and a belt connecting the pulleys whereby the cooperating roller is rotated.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. IN A WRAPPING MACHINE OF THE KIND HAVING A BED AND MEANS FOR FEEDING A WEB OF WRAPPING MATERIAL DOWN THROUGH THE BED AND MEANS FOR MOVING A RECTANGULAR BLOCK-SHAPED ARTICLE TO BE WRAPPED ALONG THE BED AND AGAINST THE MATERIAL AS A STEP IN THE WRAPPING OPERATIONS, COMPRISING MEANS FOR CUTTING A PAIR OF SLITS AT EACH SIDE OF THE WEB SPACED APART BY THE THICKNESS OF THE ARTICLE AND EXTENDING INWARDLY THEREOF TO SUCH DISTANCE THAT THE TWO PAIRS ARE SPACED APART BY THE WIDTH OF THE ARTICLE THEREBY PROVIDING A FLAP AT EACH SIDE OF THE WEB AND MEANS FOR BENDING THE FLAPS TO AN ANGLE OF SUBSTANTIALLY 90* TO THE PLANE OF THE WEB AND IN THE DIRECTION OF MOVEMENT OF THE ARTICLE, A FOLDER AT EACH SIDE OF THE WEB NEARTO THE BED AND HAVING A NARROW SLIT SO ARRANGED THAT DURING CONTINUED MOVEMENT OF THE WEB THE FLAPS ARE ENTERED INTO SAID SLITS, MEANS FOR CUTTING A WRAPPER BLANK FROM THE LEADING END OF THE WEB; AND ARRANGED AT A HEIGHT ABOVE THE BED TO CUT THE WEB AT A DISTANCE FROM THE BED SLIGHTLY EXCEEDING THE LENGTH OF BLANK EXTENDING ABOVE THE BED WHEN THE BLANK FEEDING MOVEMENT HAS TERMINATED, AUXILIARY FEEDING ROLLERS ARRANGED NEAR THE SAID NARROW SLITS TO FEED THE LEADING END OF THE WEB DOWNWARDS AND RUNNING AT A PERIPHERAL SPEED HIGHER THAN THE LINEAR SPEED OF THE WEB TO APPLY TENSION TO THE WEB AND ENSURE THE ENTRY OF THE SAID FLAPS INTO NARROW SLITS, WHEREAFTER A BLANK IS CUT FROM THE WEB, THE SAID AUXILIARY ROLLERS OPERATING THEREAFTER TO FEED THE CUT BLANK DOWNWARDS, AND MEANS FOR SEPARATING THE AUXILIARY FEEDING ROLLERS TO TERMINATE THE FEEDING OF THE BLANK AT THE INSTANT THE LOWER EDGES OF THE FLAPS REACH THE LEVEL OF THE BED. 